PPM LIKES COUNTRY

As evident in the first two monthlies of Spring, Arbitron's PPM and Country seems to be a match made in heaven. Which means that the smaller in-tab of PPM respondents, who don't change for a year, listen to Country radio in these giant East coast megalopolises. 17 of the Top 50 markets have no (New York City) or only one Country station.

Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Baltimore, Washington, Riverside-San Bernardino, San Jose, Orlando, Austin, Milwaukee, Memphis, Providence and Hartford. These are over a million populations bases and most will be PPM markets by next year. ed. San Jose technically has the 2nd product with KBWF.

First let's tackle the Apple. New York City, Sean Ross responded to a posting on http://radio-info.com in his ROSS ON RADIO - that a New York Country station would have to serve the younger end with Taylor Swift and the higher end with Kenny Rodgers. I don't think it has to be about the music demographics but about the entertainment prowess of the station. If you put a second Country on these 17 markets, they better come a blastin' through the bar door with six-shooters in both hands. Presenting Country in that scenario might be too basic for contrived contemporary radio programming in 2009.

Finally we need to look at vision, which interprets cost. The wrong move is to put a second Country station on in Austin or Philadelphia and not impact locally, topically or interactivity with the life group. These stations would need to have a pulse. Look at Atlanta, now that The Bull is sounding better and less like an AC station playing Country, it's shares are improving. But that needed to be accomplished at the launch. They lost a few years.